Nature has figured out some amazing stuff over billions of years of evolutionary experimentation. Spiders make super-tough fibers out of bugs, not toxic chemicals—and they do it at room temperature. Termites build nests with tunnels that cool the colony—without air conditioning and electricity.

This issue of YES! is about what we could learn if we followed those kinds of natural models instead of pretending we can conquer nature by modifying genes, spraying toxic substances on plants and soil, and burning ever greater amounts of climate-polluting fossil fuel.

It would take some humility to try nature’s solutions. We have convinced ourselves that we humans know best. But sometimes, nature’s original idea is the better one.

And it’s not just about how we manufacture things. We become different people when we spend time in the forest, as Indian author and activist Vandana Shiva did in her youth. We form deep bonds with a place, becoming acclimated to a unique combination of terrain, flora, and fauna. This isn’t an anti-technology vision, though. Through high technology and art we can extend our senses, and better appreciate the natural wonders that are hidden from us.

I hope you will find the articles in this issue of YES! as delightful as I do.See what’s inside the issue, and if you’re not already a subscriber, make this issue the first in your subscription with this introductory $15 offer.

Imagine this assignment, says Bill McDonough in a recent TED talk: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, converts nitrogen into ammonia, distills water, stores solar energy as fuel, builds complex sugars, creates microclimates, changes color with the seasons, and self-replicates. Sound impossible? Well, nature’s already completed this one. It’s called a plant. And the fact that it does these things safely and efficiently is inspiring engineers and designers to reconceive the ways we manufacture such basics as soap bottles, raincoats, and wall-to-wall carpeting.

Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle, the two fields of inquiry that frame this emerging discipline, stem from the work of biologist Janine Benyus, architect William McDonough, and chemist Michael Braungart, who realized that the very models they considered key to making safer, more environmentally friendly products were sitting right before us, in the natural world.

The state of Washington is expecting to generate more than $2 billion every five years from taxation of legal marijuana sales to adults. And that’s not counting the savings from no longer arresting people for possession.

History is full of cases where the people got active on the big problems of their day by forming affinity groups of 10 to 20 individuals. These groups provide energy, organization, and even psychological support.

Medical debt is the cause of 62 percent of bankruptcies, say organizers of Strike Debt, which threw last night’s offbeat fundraiser for their new “Rolling Jubilee.” Ordinary people donated enough money to collectively buy an estimated $5.9 million in debt in order to cancel it.

We never sell or share our email list. To remove yourself from this list, go back to your email and click the unsubscribe link at the top.
Manage
your email subscriptions | If this email was forwarded to you, sign up for your own
YES! newsletters